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There have been spectacular advances in world agriculture over the last three decades. These have been
reflected in the greatly increased production of important crops and commodities. Given the
importance of agriculture in the economies of developing countries, there is a need for a dynamic
agricultural research system to sustain the gains and make further advances.
Sustaining the gains from the Green Revolution has been a major concern of agricultural policy
makers, particularly for those formulating policy in developing countries. These countries have had to
develop sound management practices of their own, or adopt models tested elsewhere. One set of
policies have been adopted enthusiastically from North America and Europe, for variety testing,
release and dissemination of seed to farmers. This system, in the form adopted by developing
countries, is governed by a set of national laws, scientific guidelines, norms, and standard practices
which together may be termed ‘Regulatory Frameworks’. It is designed to provide:
• have standard and uniform testing and release procedures;
• provide the regulations needed for varietal release;
• determine the area of adaptation, the recommendation domain, of a new cultivar, and
produce data on which to base extension recommendations.
There is no doubt that some regulation is necessary to make sure that only good, appropriate, new
varieties are promoted by government, and that farmers get good quality seed, in sufficient quantity,
when they need it. But over-regulation, or poor regulation, can block the release of varieties that could
be beneficial to farmers, and can prolong unduly the whole process for successful varieties, from the
early testing stage to reaching the farmers’ fields.
Once a variety has been released, its seed multiplication is subjected to rigorous seed certification
standards, involving logistically complex field inspections and laboratory testing, before certified seed
can be made available to farmers. In addition, the marketing of the seed of cultivars, and dissemination
to farmers, is controlled by legislation and government policies. The regulatory framework aims to
keep a large proportion of seed production in the hands of the public sector, so that the supply of
seed—so important to farmers — is not left entirely to market forces that may be inefficient.
In India, regulation began to develop at around the same time as the first improved cultivars
emerged from CIMMYT and IRRI. It has evolved in response to changing circumstances, and, on the
whole, has served the country well. However, after nearly thirty years of regulation, the system needs a
radical review to remove some of the obstacles that prevent, or delay, providing low-resource farmers
with improved seed suitable for their needs.
Conclusions
The national and state varietal testing and release frameworks are concurrent and not exclusive.
Varieties may be promoted from state or national observational nurseries to the state or AICCIP trials
which may be tested in both trials simultaneously. AICCIP trials conducted within the state also serve
as state trials and depending upon the performance of entries they may be promoted to advanced state
trials from them. While the state releases aim at specific adaptations as large as the state or regions
within it, the central releases are directed more towards a wider adaptation across more than one state.
Although the state release system appears to be independent, in practice it is not, as no variety
released in a state is automatically notified for seed production. The states with strong breeding
programmes make their own decisions, but those with relatively less developed plant breeding
completely depend upon the central system for improved varieties. Despite the fact that all states
should follow the same procedure, there is great variation in the requirement for on-farm trials. Onfarm
trials are also not mandatory in the centralised system. Because of this neglect of farmer testing
there is always a danger of low or non-adoption of the variety by farmers. However, increased farmer
testing should not cause delay in release. A more decentralised system with farmers’ involvement in
the early stages of testing will be more rewarding, and the regulatory system must be flexible enough
to release varieties on the basis of trials conducted solely or partly with farmer participation (Tripp et al., 1997).